Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Phantom Or Fact? A Dialogue In Verse

Author.A lovely form there sate beside my bed,And such a feeding calm its presence shed,A tender love so pure from earthly leavenThat I unnethe the fancy might control,'Twas my own spirit newly come from heavenWooing its gentle way into my soul!But ah! the change -- It had not stirred, and yetAlas! that change how fain would I forget?That shrinking back, like one that had mistook!That weary, wandering, disavowing Look!'Twas all another, feature, look and frame,And still, methought, I knew it was the same!

Friend.This riddling Tale, to what does it belong?Is't History? Vision? or an idle Song?Or rather say at once, within what spaceOf Time this wild disastrous change took place?

Author. Call it a moment's work (and such it seems),This Tale's a Fragment from the Life of Dreams;But say, that years matured the silent strife,And 'tis a Record from the Dream of Life.